Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi opened the door to his political
rivals as he made the first moves towards forming a new coalition
government.

Mr Allawi said he would begin by talking to an alliance led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki which lost by two seats in results declared on Friday

"The Iraqi people have blessed the Iraqiya bloc by choosing it," Mr Allawi told reporters at his headquarters. "We are open to all powers starting with the State of Law bloc of brother Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Iraqi National Alliance and the Kurdish alliance and other blocs."

However, Mr Maliki has refused to accept the results and said he planned to appeal.

Envoys from the United States and United Nations have both declared the election, held on March 7, to be credible.

Analysts now fear a lengthy appeal could undermine attempts to unite the country.

Police on Saturday said the death toll from two bombs on Friday, detonated hours before the results were announced, had risen to 59.

The attack, one of Iraq's deadliest in months, also wounded 73 people, according to Major Ghalib Attiya, a police spokesman.

"From the style of the attack and its magnitude, I can say it has al-Qaeda's fingerprint," he said, adding that an investigation was under way to determine if the militant group was responsible.

The election results suggest voters have decisively rejected the domination of Shiite religious parties and sectarian politics of the past few years, as they picked a government that is likely to be in power when American forces leave Iraq next year.

Mr Allawi's Iraqiya grouping won 91 seats in the 325-member Council of Representatives, two more than Mr Maliki's State of Law Alliance.

But both groups fell far short of the 163 seats needed to form a government alone, leaving a Shiite religious coalition including anti-American Muqtada al-Sadr, known as the Iraqi National Alliance, and US-allied Kurds as likely kingmakers.

"There must be a strong government, capable of taking decisions which serve the Iraqi people, and bring peace and stability to Iraq," Mr Allawi told a press conference on Saturday.

He said he hoped a new government that could build strong relations with neighbouring countries could be formed quickly.

"There have been some talks, but they were only talks. Now, the negotiations begin. These discussions will be conducted with the different political forces, without exception."

Mr Allawi, a Shiite who has called for a greater voice for the Sunni minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein's regime, has appealed for a broad coalition centred on national identity rather than religious affiliation.